Track finances with iCash 7.1.0

Keeping good accounts is a daunting prospect but good software can make it much easier. iCash does an excellent job of keeping to good practice without being too hard to use.

Installation is simple and there are presets for home or business accounts. It's a shame there is no demo file for getting a feel for how the software works but it's not a big problem.

iCash can import information from a variety of sources including account statements, Quicken, plain text and an XMP dump.

iCash was originally a Mac program and this shows in the interface, which is clear and easy to use.

The Home preset has 36 accounts set up covering bank accounts, cash and various utilities. It is simple to set the opening balances, which helps avoid the hassle of setting up initial transactions.

The website claims that iCash avoids double entry book keeping to keep things simple. That's not really true as every transaction must have two accounts but it does avoid referring to debits and credits, the source of all the confusion in double-entry book keeping.

The other giveaway is the presence of both balance sheet and profit and loss reports. Rather than a negative, we think this is a good thing. Double entry has lasted for the good reason that it keeps accounts honest and accurate.

The unregistered version is limited 100 transactions and 100 accounts per document.